Ingredients

Take a look inside the bottle

Our goal is to answer your questions about what’s in the products by providing product ingredient information that is clear, reliable, and accessible. In other words, if you don’t find what you’re looking for here or on P&G brand sites, please let us know so that we can live up to our promise.

Ingredient choices and how we make them

Some people believe natural product ingredients are safer to use than man-made, synthetic ones. The reality is that it’s not that simple; both natural and synthetic ingredients have a safe range and an unsafe range. Even basics like sunlight, oxygen, and water have safety limits. So what goes into choosing our product ingredients?

1) Safety. We define the safe range for every ingredient , whether natural or synthetic. We use the same science-based approach as regulatory agencies around the world. (link to P&G safety process page)

2) Performance. Every ingredient has a role in delivering the performance you expect from our products. We seek to use the best ingredients for our products so that you can use them with confidence.

3) Sustainable Sourcing. Synthetic ingredients can oftentimes be more sustainable than natural ingredients because they require fewer resources. Sustainable features of a product ingredient depend on the resources used in creating it, harvesting it, making the product and then ultimately using the product. And we’re also doing the legwork to ensure we use the most sustainable and earth-friendly solutions.

Ingredients we do not use

Alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates

Benzene

Bisphenol A (not in formulas*)

Heavy metals: Arsenic, Lead, Chromium VI, Mercury, Cadmium, Nickel

Microbeads

Organotins (TBT, DBT, MBT, DOT)

PVC (not in formulas*)

PAHs (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls)

Phthalates**

Triclosan

Triclocarban**

We have strict product safety limits in place when any of these materials could be found in tiny amounts due to their natural (or background) presence in water, the environment, or as part of the manufacturing process.* We do not use BPA or PVC in any of our product formulas. Our use of PVC and BPA is restricted to very small amounts in some product packaging like pressurized aerosol cans or electrical devices where their unique performance is essential for product safety. We will consider new material options as soon as they do arise.
** We do not use these ingredients in new products and are exiting them. More details on our exit timings for these materials can be found in the Common Ingredient Questions section above.

Understanding common ingredients

Even though we ensure our products are safe to use before they hit shelves, we know there’s a lot of conversation around certain product ingredients. Here's our point of view:

1,4-Dioxane

1,4-dioxane is not an ingredient, but rather a by-product that can form in tiny (trace) amounts when making a variety of ingredients in some cleaning products. Importantly, the presence of 1,4-dioxane in our products is already well below established safe limits. For example, if you washed and wore over 1,000 loads of laundry every day, you’d still be below the safe limit for 1,4-dioxane. Our household cleaning products are at or below 25 parts per million (ppm) and many are even below 10 ppm. Our beauty products are reliably at or below 10 ppm. We’re continually working to reduce and/or eliminate it while still delivering the performance we all expect.

Phosphates

Phosphates are essential nutrients for plant growth and a healthy ecosystem, and are commonly found in fertilizers. While phosphate is naturally present in the environment, it can also be released in much smaller amounts from some cleaning products after their use. A series of product innovations now allow us to produce many effective, phosphate-free cleaning products without a compromise in cleaning performance. Therefore, we’ve removed phosphates from over 95% of our cleaning products already—and are working to eliminate the remaining 5% from our consumer products over the next few years. In the few instances we continue to use phosphates, we are in compliance with all applicable regulatory limits.

Phthalates

You may have heard general safety questions about phthalates. There are several types of phthalates and each one is different (much like there are safe and unsafe types of mushrooms). We comply with all phthalate bans globally. In fact, we have removed the only phthalate that was used in our product fragrances even though agencies found it to be safe.

Triclosan and Triclorcarban

Triclosan and triclocarban are antimicrobial ingredients that slow or stop the growth of germs such as bacteria and mildew. We have already eliminated triclosan from our products globally and have an exit plan for our few remaining uses of triclocarban.

Microbeads

Microbeads are solid plastic particles of 5 mm or less and are used to exfoliate or cleanse in personal care products.

We previously included microbeads in some of our exfoliating cleansing products and toothpastes based on positive feedback from people who use them. Because microbeads are made from plastic, certain groups have questioned whether plastic found in our oceans and waterways is from microbeads. The science to date shows the breakdown of larger plastics to be the primary source of plastics in the ocean, not microbeads.

Now we have removed microbeads from all P&G facial/body cleansers and toothpaste formulas, so today the products we are manufacturing are microbead-free.

Fragrance Ingredients

We share more details on the list of fragrance ingredients we use to make our fragrances, as well as the list of ingredients we do not use here. You will see that we do not use many common food allergens in our fragrances, including Egg Derivatives, Milk Derivatives, Gluten, Barley, Rye, Soy Derivatives, Fish or Shellfish. In total, we exclude over 140 ingredients from our fragrances – more exclusive than the list of ingredients banned by the International Fragrance Association.
We are committed to completing fragrance transparency listings for all products sold in U.S. and Canada by the end of 2019. You can read more about our commitment at: news.pg.com

Preservatives (including parabens and others)

Preservatives help keep all of us safe by preventing growth of bacteria and mold during the use of consumer products. Different product types need different preservatives that work best for that particular formula. You can rest assured that all of our preservatives comply with applicable regulations and safe limits wherever they are sold.

A small number of products require a different preservative not listed above, including potassium sorbate, benzalkonium chloride, dehydroaceticacid and chlorhexidine digluconate. They are indicated on the ingredient list in the product used.